Tony: There could be any number of reasons why the mortality rate might seem particurarly high at any given time. Though the round of diseases that made their way through the countryside may not have been "epidemic" they were nonetheless deadly. Name anyone of the diseases for which we are vaccinated as children and you can be sure that it made its way through our ancestor's villages at one time or another. I am not certain of the timing with the 3 boys you mention but through this period of time (or close to it) there was also a great deal of political upheaval involving armies which would have disrupted planting and harveting. So hunger due to poor harvests due to political upheaval, drought or even poor circumstances could have weakened them and left them vulnerable to disease. In short there are a million and one things that could have contributed to their deaths. I, too, have rarely seen a cause of death (or at least one that I could interpret) on any of my village's records (Urloffen). I attribute it to "just didn't matter" or the recording priest didn't know. Dan Bravard II Great-great-grandson Casper Schneider, b. 1830, Urloffen, Offenburg, Baden ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 6:36 PM Subject: Cause of death > List Members, > > I have been keeping myself busy going through about 10 films from LDS from > Church Records of Oberkirch, Baden. I have copied many and had them > transcribed and translated by German Historical Research Society Inc. > These people do a fantastic job and I have learned much, much more about > my German heritage than I have in the past 15 years. > Now, I have another question for the list membership. I have noticed among > the many death documents recorded by the church that never was a reason > for death given or recorded. Did they just not record the cause of death > or is there other records that would contain this information. The reason > I ask this question poses another question. During the early 1800's the > family had children born in 1812, 1814, 1815, 1818, 1819, 1821. The first > three children immigrated to America with the father and mother. The last > three children (boys) died between 1822 and 1828. All less than 10 years > old. Was there some sort of disease within the country at that time that > would have caused a higher than usual mortality rate among the young > children? Could war have been a reason for death? > I would like to hear from you as to your thought on this matter. > > Regards, Tony Fetz >